Trump Ridiculed After Claiming He Was ‘Tortured’ in Georgia Detention Facility After Voluntarily Surrendering

Donald Trump is being ridiculed on social media after claiming in a fundraising email to supporters that he was “tortured” during his impeachment in Georgia last August.

“I want you to remember what they did to me,” wrote campaign activists of the Republican presidential candidate in the latest email.

“They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail and TOOK A PHOTO OF ME. Guess what? I put it on a mug for the WHOLE WORLD TO SEE!”

Indeed, the same dispatch offered for sale coffee mugs with this exact image, for a suggested donation of $47 or $100. The first amount was supposed to refer to the author’s ambitions to become the 47th president of America.

The email, characteristically over the top throughout, also includes a special message from Trump that reads: “I was assaulted, charged and convicted in a rigged trial! Despite everything they throw at me, I will never surrender! Can I count on your continued support today? You will be the reason we take our country back!”

Trump was charged last summer by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with corruption crimes related to an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State in his favor, and on Aug. 24, he voluntarily surrendered to authorities at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, where the famous mugshot was taken.

The candidate has continued to use the image since then, raising campaign funds by featuring it on merchandise and, most recently, giving T-shirts with the image to podcasters Logan Paul and Mike Majlak when they interviewed him for their show. Unrestrained show, and the duo jokingly referred to him as a “gangster” in response.

Trump’s email was widely ridiculed on X, with media commentator Mike Sington labeling the appeal as another “lie designed to get money from his rubies.”

Another user asked: “Trump thinks torture includes photos and fingerprints? Has he been searched? How many criminals are laughing at him?”

A slightly more animated poster wrote: “Trump claims he was tortured during the 20 minutes it took to get arrested in Fulton County, Georgia last August. Tortured? During the 20 minutes? With the Secret Service all around? We can’t elect a president who is crazy.”

Another replied: “Remember when John McCain was literally tortured at the Hanoi Hilton for 6 years? Trump should shut up!”

The reference to the late Arizona GOP senator is apt because McCain was a pilot in the Vietnam War and was actually detained and tortured during that conflict, and later showed no respect for Trump, who received five draft deferments.

The New York businessman said of McCain at a July 2015 campaign event in Iowa: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured.”

More recently, the former president saw no problem in comparing being found liable for business fraud and fined $350 million plus interest with the murder of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison camp in February under highly suspicious circumstances after being imprisoned on false charges for daring to defy Vladimir Putin.

In addition to Trump failing to take seriously the experiences of those who were actually tortured, he also has a habit of using the word dismissively in reference to conservative allies who are facing repercussions or scrutiny for past actions they weren’t particularly happy about.

For example, as president in October 2018, he complained that Democrats in Congress “tortured” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious Senate nomination hearings, when allegations of past sexual impropriety against him were raised and discussed.

His former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, also claimed without evidence in a March 2020 interview with Fox News host Lou Dobbs that Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was “tortured” in an effort to turn him against the then-president.